1 comment:

Does the film mention that Sternberg wasn't actually "expelled"? Does it mention that Meyer and Sternberg were acquainted, that Meyer's paper was on a topic that the journal did not normally publish on, and that Sternberg did not involve any associate editors in the publication process? In any other field, this would be professional misconduct - and yet Sternberg was not even fired.

Does it tell you that Caroline Crocker didn't just "mention" Intelligent Design, but that she was teaching her students blatant falsehoods about evolution? If anything, she should be blamed for incompetence. Does it mention that Crocker wasn't fired either - she was on a part-time contract, which was not renewed when it ended.

Does it tell you that Guillermo Gonzalez's publication record trailed off in his years at ISU, that he failed to bring in enough funding for research, and he did not supervise any graduate students? Tenure is a job for life, so a lot of factors go into making this decision.

Silencing honest questions is a dangerous thing, but so is selective truth.

In fact, the undertones of paranoia are over the top. Will Provine and Allen MacNeill are evolutionary biologists at Cornell University who regularly invite ID advocates to give talks in their evolution classes.

ID had it's chance to shine at the Dover trial, but some of the Discovery Institute big shots like Stephen Meyer and William Dembski failed to turn up and testify. Nobody was stopping them. In the end, Judge Jones rightly saw that ID was devoid of any scientific merit. Which is why they are now screaming persecution in order to gain sympathy.

I agree that science and religion are not incompatible.

Just ask prominent biologists Kenneth Miller and Francisco Ayala, both devout Christians who were incidentally not interviewed for the film.

People need to see this film, if only to be aware of the importance of the issues. But I hope they take what the film says with a large pinch of salt (to get a more balanced view, please visit http://www.expelledexposed.com run by the National Center for Science Education). A few years ago, when ID was trying to subvert the scientific process and enter the classroom through the courts and the schoolboards, their slogan was "teach the controversy". Now it is the guise of "freedom of speech" and "academic freedom".